Work kills two or more New Zealanders every day, WorkSafe figures show

Monday, 24 October 2016

Workers remove asbestos from a Newtown building site earlier in 2016.

Two or more New Zealanders are dying each day from the simple act of turning up to work.

The 600 to 900 work-related deaths each year dwarfs the roughly 60 people killed in workplace accidents annually.

WorkSafe chief executive Gordon MacDonald says fumes and dust in workplaces can kill, often years after the workers are exposed to them.

It is on top of up to 6000 workers hospitalised each year with cancer, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and other chronic illnesses from workplace exposure to airborne contaminants.

WorkSafe is running a campaign highlighting the risks from welding fumes, wood dust and carbon monoxide in manufacturing and construction jobs.

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This is as well as the dangers of asbestos which – despite its dangers being known about for decades – still kills about 120 New Zealanders a year.

WorkSafe's figures show 15 in every 100 employers failed to manage the risks from fumes and dust.

Shaun Barrer, of Tasman, knows the risks well from working in engineering and doing a lot of aluminum and galvanised plate welding.

Whenever he had been welding without a respirator, particularly with galvanised material, he would get 'zinc chills', which came with uncontrollable shivering, migraine headaches, nausea and sore joints.

'They generally go away after around 12 hours, but are very unpleasant at the time.'

He has since changed jobs and suffered no long-term effects.

LONG-TERM RISK

WorkSafe chief executive Gordon MacDonald said, assuming Barrer did not develop long-term problems, things could have been much worse.

Welding was regarded as a serious hazard because the fumes it released led to lung and breathing problems, and sometimes lung cancer.

'A lot of these conditions can take five to 10 years – with asbestos 20 to 30 years – before you start to develop symptoms.'

By then, it was often too late to save people.

Inspectors, who visited 1000 New Zealand workplaces, discovered many dangers, some which came down to 'simple ignorance', MacDonald said.

This included bulldozer workers demolishing buildings, only to find out afterwards that they contained asbestos; or people cutting concrete or stone amid 'coulds of dust' without protective gear.

While the dangers of asbestos were well known, the same was not true of silica and wood dust.

DISEASE DANGER

Marcus Nalter, from WorkSafe, said diseases associated with wood dust and welding fumes included cancers, asthma and chronic lung conditions, while carbon monoxide could be deadly.

'Workers in the construction sector are 20 times more likely to die of exposure to harmful airborne substances than from a workplace incident, and that rises to 25 times more likely for manufacturing workers.'

Of the 1000 workplaces visited by WorkSafe during the past two years, inspectors found 150 in which risks were not being properly managed, and enforcement action was taken.

Ron Angel, engineering and infrastructure industry co-ordinator for the E tu union, said the issue of dust and fumes was one of which the union was well aware, and there were still not enough workplaces taking necessary safety measures.

'It's an issue everyone is aware of in the welding industry.'

Yet still, on some construction sites, workers were doing quick cuts or sweeping up without taking precautions.

'Thirty years later, they are [sick] at home, no longer on the job. You just don't see it.

'You are dying on the job. It is just taking 30 years to die.'